WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s new immigration proposal began drawing fire from all sides of the political spectrum Thursday with Democrats dismissing it as a political statement and some conservatives saying it doesn’t go nearly far enough.

Crafted by the president’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, the proposal would create a system to prioritize highly skilled immigrants but it glosses over concerns Trump has raised for years about immigrants slipping over the border and asylum seekers. The president declared a national emergency at the border three months ago.

“This plan was not developed by politicians,” Trump told reporters in a Rose Garden event Thursday. “It’s just common sense.”

Trump said the proposal includes a trust fund, paid for by border fees, to finance border security. And the president said the plan would make changes to the nation’s asylum system, saying it would screen out “meritless claims” while expediting others. It was not immediately clear how the administration would decide which is which.

“Under this plan, the border will finally be fully and totally secure,” Trump said.

What’s not included?

But the proposal – which was scant on details – is also silent on key issues:

• A solution for “Dreamers,” the roughly 3.8 million immigrants brought to the country illegally as children. Trump terminated a program in 2017 that shielded some 800,000 of them from deportation, but federal courts have left the program intact for now. Democrats say they need a fix for Dreamers to support broader immigration reform.

• A plan to deal with the nation’s estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants, which Trump has repeatedly threatened to deport since before taking office. Trump’s 2016 campaign focused heavily on illegal immigration, and his centerpiece response was his proposed wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. But this latest proposal deals almost exclusively with legal immigration.

• A solution for more than 300,000 foreign nationals who live legally in the U.S under the Temporary Protected Status program, which allows people to stay in the U.S. while their home countries recover from natural disasters and conflict. The Trump administration has been phasing out that program, but has been blocked by federal courts.

President Donald Trump speaks during an event on energy infrastructure at the Cameron LNG export facility, May 14, 2019, in Hackberry, Louisiana.(Photo: Evan Vucci, AP)

Tough reaction

Democrats, predictably, were skeptical of the president’s motives and noted White House officials have acknowledged the effort is intended to rally Republicans ahead of the 2020 presidential campaign. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi described the notion of creating a “merit” immigration system, a term Trump embraces, as “condescending.”

“Are they saying family is without merit?” Pelosi asked reporters on Capitol Hill. “Are they saying most of the people who have come to the United States in the history of our country are without merit because they don’t have an engineering degree?”

But it wasn’t just Democrats and left-leaning groups that were slow to warm to the White House outline. The Chamber of Commerce released a lukewarm assessment, saying it appreciated the effort but “much work remains ahead of us on several issues.”

Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that advocates for lower levels of legal and illegal immigration and routinely advises the Trump administration on policy, said Kushner’s team should be praised for finally putting to paper ideas Trump has only talked about at campaign rallies.

While speaking at the National Peace Officers Memorial Service, President Trump vowed to do "whatever it takes" to stop illegal immigrants.USA TODAY

But since most observers agree the outline is merely a campaign position, Krikorian said he is disappointed it didn’t call for an overall reduction in legal immigration. The U.S accepts about 1 million legal immigrants each year and Krikorian said the White House missed an opportunity to call for reducing that number by at least 5%.

“They’ve made a conscious decision to embrace mass immigration and not include even a token reduction in the immigration level,” Krikorian said. “That’s a problem precisely because this is not going to be a legislative vehicle.”